“Faith, trust, and pixie dust!” That's the Fairy way. In the meadows, fields and general rural areas of early 20th-century England, fairies dominate nature as they paint the patterns on the butterflies, make the grass grow, help flowers bloom and make crickets chirp. Humans are ignorant to all of this because fairies keep to themselves 100% of the time. Except for Tinker Bell. She's curious.
As Tink and her fairy friends begin their stint at Fairy Camp, we get to know a little about Tink. She gets her name because of how well-versed she is in the ways of tinkering. She is able to fix up just about anything, and has an unending fascination with how gadgets work. Think of her as a two-inch-tall, green-dress-wearing Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As Tink and her fairy friends begin their stint at Fairy Camp, we get to know a little about Tink. She gets her name because of how well-versed she is in the ways of tinkering. She is able to fix up just about anything, and has an unending fascination with how gadgets work. Think of her as a two-inch-tall, green-dress-wearing Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
And on this sunny morning at Fairy Camp, things become tense when the fairies hear a car approach on a nearby road. Tink's relentless curiosity causes her to rush out and see what the giant horseless carriage is all about. The car belongs to Dr. Griffiths, an esteemed scientist whose field of study seems to be entomology; the only proof of this seems to be the butterflies tacked up on one of his house walls. He has a young daughter, Lizzy, with whom he has hardly anything in common, as she is obsessed with fairies, and things that can't be scientifically proven. The story sort of shoves their incongruities in the audience's face when Dr. Griffiths insists on showing little Lizzy all his field-study books on rocks and geology and stuff. Why he would presume she is interested and why he is shocked when she shows no interest is kind of a mystery. After watching some of the deleted scenes, the creators actually cut out some better, more subtle instances showing distance between Lizzy and her workaholic father.
Through a series of mishaps while Tink and her grumpy fairy friend Vidia examine the automobile, Tink ends up accidentally getting ensnared in one of Lizzy's toy fairy houses, and is brought to the Griffiths' home. Lizzy is ecstatic, but Vidia, who witnesses and is at fault for Tink's imprisonment, is worried for Tink's life after seeing all the butterflies pinned up inside the home. Also, the Griffithses have a mean ol' cat, which apparently hates mouse-sized creatures like fairies. So, Vidia flies back to the Fairy Camp, and a rescue team is assembled.
As Lizzy and Tink become best of pals, Vidia and her squad of rescuers travel by makeshift boat, due to rain. (Fairies can't fly in the rain because they're wings get too wet to flap.) There are some moments where the fairies' lives almost meet their demise, but overall, not a lot of suspense goes on in the first while, particularly because the audience is treated to Tink being treated extremely well by Lizzy, and since we know Tink is really not in much danger at all, and is just waiting for the rain to stop so she can take the five-minute flight back home, the audience won't be on any edges of seats, at least for the majority of the film.
But things do get more and more out-of-hand by the end, and suspense happens, but as you can imagine from most Disney products, the ending is nothing shy of predictable. And a list of about a hundred things that don't make sense could be made. Yes, it's a movie for kids, but why does the majority of the fairies have American accents in England? One of them even has a southern drawl. And why does, after hundreds of years, Tink find it necessary to continually put her entire species at risk by constantly investigating the humans? And there's even a borderline frustrating part where, after Tink explains to Lizzy that fairies are responsible for the changing of the seasons, Lizzy retorts, “I thought that was because the Earth spun on its axis.” Tink just says “Nope! We just wanted you to think that.” I know it's a movie for children, and teaching a child how to have an imagination is extremely important, but with the inclusion of Lizzy's line about the Earth's axis, it's not so much teaching children imagination as it is unteaching them facts.
The movie looks pretty good; it's probably the best-looking straight-to-DVD/Blu-ray out there. And the voice actors hold their own despite what little challenges they were given. However, there are some great movies out there for children that are funnier and teach better lessons, or at the very least, are more entertaining. But if you want to show your son or daughter some bright, flashy colors accompanied by G-rated dialogue, this wouldn't be the worst choice.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
There are some deleted scenes, which are actually more like very rudimentary 2D drawings. The director and producer introduce these clips and explain why, as an animated movie, the deleted scenes are still in early production phases. They even go so far as to show us a mere storyboard of one deleted scene, and then, just for the sake of showing the audience the process of production, take the steps to animate pretty thoroughly the same scene. There's the music video “How to Believe” by Bridgit Mendler. It's made for the movie so, yeah, it's pretty fairy-heavy. Then an interactive part called “Fairy Field Guide Builder.” There is a multiple-choice quiz involved, and I purposely would select the wrong answer. Tink had a bit of an acid tongue when she retorted “Good answer!...if only it were the right answer...”
"Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue" is on sale September 21, 2010 and is rated G. Animation. Directed by Bradley Raymond. Written by Carolyn Gair (story developed by), Bradley Raymond (story), Rob Muir (writer), Bob Hilgenberg (writer). Starring Kristin Chenoweth, Lauren Mote, Lucy Liu, Mae Whitman, Michael Sheen, Pamela Adlon.
